Kenyan brings Maasai-inspired jewellery to Toronto

Unique project brings Maasai-inspired jewellery to Bloor Street

What do Ryerson University, a Kenyan village and Holt Renfrew have in common? A jewellery-making project that could help lift 200 women out of poverty.

As the Maasai matriarch darts her needle in and out of blue beads, she wishes she could add a red one to the mix now and then.

But “Mama Teriano” is not home in Kenya making jewellery the traditional way; she is visiting Ryerson University, where her daughter now works, to help fashion a North American version to be sold at Holt Renfrew as part of a line that honours African cultures.

For this cross-border design, part of a global collection to be launched April 1 by the upscale retailer, Mama Teriano is using this spring’s hot western colours of turquoise and cobalt blue.

“Sometimes my mom says, ‘I want to add other colours, too’ because we like a lot of blended colours in Maasai culture; orange, yellow, blue and always some red,” said a laughing Teriano Lesancha, a Ryerson grad now working with the university’s office of research and innovation. Proceeds from sales of the Holt Renfrew pieces will go back to her village.

“Our colours don’t change each year,” said Teriano, translating for her mother from the Maasai language, “but here people tend to go more for solid colours; no more than two.”

Teriano is the student whose father gave Ryerson president Sheldon Levy a cow three years ago for educating his learning-obsessed daughter. Today she has a foot in both worlds, working for Ryerson and creating her own “SupaMaasai” foundation in rural Kenya to provide scholarships and launching a beadwork collective to help 200 women — including her mother — turn their ancestral handiwork into cash flow.

“Our collective makes sure they’re paid a fair wage and have access to markets,” said Teriano. “These are the 200 best beaders, and if we can build them a workshop they won’t have to spend the day fetching water or firewood. These women have the skills, but there is a language barrier and it’s a three-hour bus ride to markets in Nairobi. They need a way to get the products out there.”

This is a blue-ribbon start. The Maasai-inspired jewellery has landed on Toronto’s Mink Mile as part of Holt’s H Project, which showcases styles from various countries. It includes a necklace and bracelet created jointly by Canadian designer Dean Davidson and “Mama Teriano.” A mutual friend introduced Teriano and Davidson, who suggested the Maasai jewellery would fit with the H Project campaign spearheaded by Alexandra Weston, the store’s director of brand strategy.

“I think it brings awareness of different products and also brings exposure to what Teriano’s doing through her foundation,” said Davidson, who adapted a traditional Maasai tube-style necklace for western customers by using a more supple leather core tube than the traditional hard Maasai plastic.

“I worked with the traditional Maasai piece and married the two (styles),” said Davidson, who added brushed gold and stretchy wire for the bracelet that appeals to western tastes but is not used in Maasai jewellery. His staff did the metal work; Mama Teriano did the beading. Teriano hopes to launch a kickstarter fundraising campaign to help build the workshop building.

“Alexandra Weston wanted us to make something unique that uses traditional Maasai beads but create a unique product. This has the feel of traditional pieces but is wearable and saleable to North Americans.”

Alexandra Weston said “we are absolutely delighted to be the exclusive destination for this incredible jewellery collaboration by renowned Canadian designer Dean Davidson alongside Mama Teriano in support of SupaMaasai. We are proud of H Project’s ongoing support for culture, craft, artisans and meaningful causes.”

–  thestar.com